Day 345: The decking of halls doesn’t only occur by flouncing bows of holly upon our houses. Decking the halls is necessary for the mental corridors of our minds, too.
David left on his mission on July 4th. We were nineteen. I was so proud of him. I also had no idea how I would survive without my best friend. I told him goodbye, and went home to an empty house. Everyone else was in Idaho Falls at my brother’s house for a picnic. The phone rang, and it was my Grandma Evy. She was inspired to call. She told me how she’d waited for Grandpa on his mission. I told her I felt left behind; that David would progress and learn and I was stuck at home. She told me it was an opportunity to become the very best me I could be. She said I had the power to shape my future. She pointed out that gaining a college education wasn’t being left behind. I would have just as many learning opportunities as David would, only different. I just needed to take advantage of them and fill my head with it all. Her phone call shaped my future.
She checked on me regularly, wrote me letters, and wrote letters to David on his mission.
Grandma died on the 21st of December in 1985; two days before David returned from his mission. She wanted him to sing at her funeral, and even though it was the day after he got off the plane, he sang. David received a letter from her just days before he came home. He was the last person to receive one of her precious letters. Her funeral was held on Christmas Eve. It felt like she had held on through David’s mission, just so that it would all work out exactly like it did.
I gave her life sketch at her funeral, and ended with this thought: “How fitting it is that we honor this woman who had such faith in Jesus Christ, on the night we celebrate His birth. If I know my grandmother, she meant this as a learning moment. She wants us to remember that the gift we received from Him this night so long ago, gave us the ability to return to Him, just as she’s now done. We see it, Grandma. We see the light.”
She taught me to deck my mental halls with all the learning they will hold, and to deck my heart with Christ’s glorious light. Finer flourishes can never be found.
Comments